After Digvijaya Singh’s Visit, Rebel Congress MLAs’ Videos Targeting Him
BANGALURU : Congress leader Digvijaya Singh early Wednesday sat on a dharna outside Ramada hotel in Bengaluru. The development came after Singh was allegedly not allowed by the police to visit the hotel, where 21 Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs are lodged in.
The Congress leader had arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru early Wednesday and was received by the newly-appointed president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and former Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar.
DK Shivakumar also went to the Ramana Hotel in Bengaluru’s Yelahanka area which is where the rebel MLAs are currently staying.
Addressing the media over the incident, Digvijaya Singh said, “I’m a Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh, voting is scheduled for March 26.” “My 22 MLAs have been held captive here in Bangalore. They want to talk to me. Their phones have been snatched. Let me allow to meet them,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Digvijaya Singh had said that Kamal Nath-led government in Madhya Pradesh has the numbers and is ready to face a no-confidence motion in the state Assembly. “A no-confidence motion has been given to the Speaker and he will decide. We are ready to face the no-confidence motion,” Singh told reporters in Bhopal.
He said that the party will appeal to the court to bring back all MLAs. “All these MLAs who are in Bengaluru, what are they doing there? We will appeal to the court to bring them back,” he said.
The development comes as the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, which met on Monday morning for the Budget session was adjourned till March 26, immediately after the Governor’s address, in view of the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier, Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon had written a letter to Chief Minister Kamal Nath directing him to conduct the floor test on March 17.
Soon after quitting the Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP and was announced as the latter’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha. Scindia’s decision to leave Congress was followed by the resignation of 22 party MLAs loyal to him. The legislators who have resigned include six ministers.
Meanwhile, Rebel Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs encamped at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru have released videos saying they had been “trying to talk (to senior party leaders for one year” but did not wish to anymore.
The MLAs, whose resignations last week have left the state’s Congress government near collapse, countered party claims they had been abducted and forced to resign, saying they had chosen to leave the party of their own will and were not interested in talking with their former colleagues.
Twenty-one videos were released this morning following Madhya Pradesh senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s dramatic protest outside the hotel. Mr Singh, who was protesting outside the Ramada Hotel in the Karnataka capital, was dragged away by police and taken into preventive custody.
Mr Singh, who led an earlier “rescue” operation after some MLAs were taken to a resort in Gurgaon near Delhi, was in the thick of the action today too, accompanied by Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar; Mr Shivakumar led a similar action last year after Congress-JDS MLAs resigned and holed up in a hotel in then-BJP-ruled Maharashtra.
“We were expecting them to come back, but when we saw they’re being held back, messages came from families. I spoke to five MLAs. They said they’re captive and that their phones have been snatched away,” Mr Singh said.
“We have come to know through some people that some Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders, like Digvijaya Singh-ji, came to see us. We do not wish to see or talk to anyone. We have been trying to talk for one year and for one year nobody has listened to us. In one day what will they listen?” Aidal Singh Kansana, the MLA from Sumwali in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district said.
“We have come to Bengaluru of our own will and will leave the same way. It has been said that Congress leaders and ministers came to see us today. We left because the government in power was not doing any work for the people. We are here because we are disappointed by the government in power,” Kamlesh Jatav, the MLA from Ambah in Morena district, said.
“We left, we ran way, because of Digvijaya Singh. Leaders like him ruined the Congress. I appeal to Bengaluru Police for protection. We don’t want to meet Digvijaya Singh,” Imarti Devi, who was sacked as Minister of Women and Child Development following her rebellion, said.
The BJP has gone to the Supreme Court asking for an immediate floor test. The governor, Lalji Tandon, has twice asked Chief Minister Kamal Nath to prove his majority but the Congress accuses him of “pre-determining” that the party is already in a minority.
Bureau REport with Agency Inputs ).
